April 25, 2024

Icahn comments spark late day sell off

Index & Sector performance 11/18/13 The Market: It was a fairly quiet day in the markets until a comment from Carl Icahn appears to have started a late day sell off after noting that he could see the markets have a “big drop”.  This sent the S&P 500 down roughly 12 points in the final hour of trading In economic date the NAHB Housing Market Index fell slightly short of estimates posting a 54 when 56 was expected.  Today also some a mix of Fed speak and that continues tomorrow including Fed Chairman Bernanke at 7pm EST and President Obama…

Market follows up gap with more gains

Index & Sector performance 9/17/13 The Market: The majority of today’s action was in the first half hour of trading when the S&P gaped slightly higher and then ran up seeing the majority of the days gains.  The remainder of the day the market was able to hold those gains and drift higher on what looked to be an overall light volume day. In economic news, Core CPI came in as expected while headline CPI  was actually less than expected with a 0.1% increase when 0.2% was expected.  Remember headline reflects food and energy while core strips it out.  Tomorrow…

Great Initial Claims data but….

The Market: The markets saw a small down day which after the recent bullish action only seems to be best described as a consolidation.  The leading sector of the day was technology which saw Apple (AAPL) Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) lead but the next best sector was the Consumer Staples and the standout there was Walgreen (WAG) which caught an upgrade to Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs. In economic data there was a great deal of data including the often watched Initial Jobless Claims which came in better than expected posting a 292K number vs the consensus estimate of…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -36.86 (-0.24%) to 15,521.97;S&P 500 -6.32 (-0.37%) to 1,685.33;NASDAQ -14.02 (-0.39%) to 3,599.14 Today the S&P 500 started with a small gap down that initially tried to rally back to Friday’s close but couldn’t hold and slipped lower until finding a bottom just before noon EST.  After gaining some traction the S&P rallied until roughly 2:30 EST before falling again in the last hour of trading but did not make new lows for the day. There was a notable merger in today’s news and while the stocks didn’t move very much, due to the size of the companies it was note worthy…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -42.55 (-0.28%) to 14,932.41;S&P 500 -0.88 (-0.05%) to 1,614.08;NASDAQ -1.09 (-0.03%) to 3,433.40 The S&P 500 started today looking as though it was going to recover well from yesterday’s late day sell of but again around Noon EST the market lost momentum and declined into 2:30 Pm EST where there was then a bottom and late day small rally which took the major indexes near flat for the day but well off the highs.  In economic data, Total Vehicle sales bested expectations coming in at 16M units sold and tomorrow ADP employment numbers come in with an estimate of 161K.  The official…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -26.81 (-0.18%) to 15,091.68; S&P 500 +0.07 (+0.00%) to 1,633.77; NASDAQ +1.07 (+0.04%) to 2,982.09 Today was more active than the change on the day and even the Daily chart might show as early trading started with a small gap down and then a strong move lower until 10am EST when the S&P 500 finally bottomed and then rallied roughly 10 points to noon est where it spend the remainder of the day consolidating closing a few points off the day’s highs. In company news Monsanto (MON) received a positive Supreme Court ruling that essentially stated that Farmers cannot use MON’s seeds to create new…

Week in Review

DJIA +35.87 (+0.24%) to 15,118.49; S&P 500 +7.03 (+0.43%) to 1,633.70; NASDAQ +19.90 (+0.67%) to 2,981.02 Friday was a very choppy trading session which sent the index bouncing around and when it looked like it could possible be setting up for a late day sell-off ended up instead closing near highs for the day.  In economic news the calendar was light but had a great deal of Fed speak throughout the day including Chairman Bernanke right near the open. The Dell (DELL) going private saga continued where two large DELL investors, Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management, advised that they will not be voting for Michael…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -22.50 (-0.15%) to 15,082.62; S&P 500 -6.02 (-0.37%) to 1,626.67; NASDAQ -7.12 (-0.24%) to 2,961.12 The markets got started with another better than expected Unemployment claims number that came in at 323K, 10K below the consensus estimates and 1K lower than the previous month’s number.  If I remember correctly, that previous number was the lowest print in many years and one week later was taken out.  Otherwise the action was choppy and initially we rallied off the better than expected data until topping just before 10am EST and then moving lower to 10:30am.  After ultimately finding a bottom the market floundered unjust before 1pm when…

Week in Review

DJIA +11.75 (+0.08%) to 14,712.55; S&P 500 -2.92 (-0.18%) to 1,582.24; NASDAQ -8.11 (-0.28%) to 2,840.55 With the exception of the Dow, the markets were on the downside Friday but only slightly so on what was a relatively uneventful options expiration.  All in all I would call today another consolidation day.  The S&P 500 started relatively flat and then moved lower until noon EST where it set a bottom and rallied the remainder of the day including a quick peak into positive territory just before the close which was eventually sold leave the small loss on the day.  In economic news we saw real GDP growth…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +19.66 (+0.14%) to 14,567.17; S&P 500 +7.25 (+0.47%) to 1,562.50; NASDAQ +29.61 (+1.06%) to 2,810.07 Monday’s action started with a gap higher which was promptly sold until just before 11am EST when the S&P 500 finally bottomed and then rallied the majority of the day.  The high for the day was set just before 3pm EST and the remainder of the day was spent consolidating with a slightly lower bias.  In economic data we saw a slightly downbeat housing (existing sales) number coming in at 4.92M vs a 5.02M estimate. Caterpillar (CAT) announced earnings that seemed to be overall disappointing with a…